Episode #226 – The Lord’s Radical Will

(M) I’ve never done this before, but two weeks ago there was a podcast named “Sonship by the Spirit”, and there was the most delightful comment to that. So I’m going to do something unprecedented. I’d like to answer; although I don’t know that this person is so delightful and real about it that she probably doesn’t need an answer as much as she is asking. She says, “I want”, or he, I don’t know it is, because we don’t have access to the e-mail. “I want to hear more about His will going ‘strange’”, four little asterisks for emphasis, “I feel like a helpless, infatuated woman”, it is a woman, “who has fallen madly in love with a ‘Madman’ who keeps leading me to these cliffs.” “And of course I keep jumping off, because I have no control over this infatuation. It’s like I am addicted to this Lover of my soul, Whom I cannot see, and He keeps KILLIN ME (caps).” And then there’s sixteen asterisks for emphasis. “Why? Martha, your messages make me feel like Dorothy on the “Wizard of Oz”, there’s no place like home. Thank you.” (Martha laughs) (J) Hmmmm. (M) And since she knows that His will is dangerous, and she’s already jumping off the cliff, I don’t think I could add a thing to this infatuated woman. But I want to talk about Jesus doing God’s will in strange places that were shocking to society. And one of them was when the woman was caught in adultery, and all of the Pharisee’s and the lawyer’s and whoever, came to condemn her, and He didn’t condemn her, He just said, “go and sin no more”. And so we’re here in the meeting so I want other people to think of things that Jesus will… Jesus obeying the will of God was strange and scandalous. When He said, “you must eat My flesh and drink My blood”, that was the most scandalous to a Jewish, faithful Jewish person, that there could be. (J) Hmhmm. (M) And He didn’t flinch when they turned away and left Him. So… (J) I think about the Samaritan woman, and being there with a woman by Himself, talking to her, and taking water from her, that was very scandalous at the time. (M) Yes, and she was not a Jew. (J) And that was the double, ah, anti-up on that one. (M) Hmhmm. I remember being in New York City, being introduced to a Jewish man, and I did not know that he was not supposed to shake hands with a woman. So I extended my hand, and he didn’t take it. That was kind of, oh my goodness. I realized then that even that was forbidden. (J) Hmhmm. (M) But His will is scandalous. I thought this, as I was thinking about this I thought about someone that came to a conference, and I befriended this person, led of the Lord. And then I realized, as we sat at my breakfast table, that, I realized who this person was, very, very dark. And very, very wicked. And I knew that God had called me to open my heart, my home, my money, my world. And I sat there at that table thinking, this one could kill me for sure. (J) Hmhmm. (M) And John saw it, and he was afraid I didn’t see it. And I just said, ok Lord. You’re calling me to this, so here we go. And later, some months later, someone called who knew this person well and said, John… They knew that I was working with him, many hours, many, many, much time invested and much love and anointing invested in this one. And they said doesn’t Martha know who this is? What kind of person this is? And you said yes, she does. (J) Hmhmm. (M) She is called. And I knew that that was, could be a very scandalous obedience. (J) Sure. (M) And it did turn out to be. (J) It really was. (M) Because eventually this person went to, into, back into darkness, and completely turned against us, the whole group. And really we found out later, by a man with integrity, that he had said such outlandish things, such horrible things, that when John was told he said, well that can’t be us, that’s not remotely us. And the man said, oh yes, it is. Well, we traced it back to this person, had so viciously… And so it turned out to be a scandal. (J) Hmhmm. (M) It, it turned out to be a scandal. (J) And destroyed relationships. (M) Oh very much, destroyed areas, whole areas where I had friends. So, God…and Jesus, if we consider that He was thought to be an illegitimate man. (J) Hmhmm. (M) And that He was certainly of… in the Jewish culture that was completely socially unacceptable and you were shunned by… So all His life He lived as a scandal. (J) Yeah, we think of Him; He came into human history by, you know, here’s this poor virgin, you know, that is now impregnated. Well, everybody’s going to look at her and say, hmm. (M) Yeah. So His will is always going to carry the risk of the scandal. And if you love the world, or you love the approval of man, or you love yourself more than God, you will not do, follow His will to the point where you really go into the bliss of the Father, about which I’m speaking. So, it’s always scandalous, it’s unendingly scandalous that sometimes you give yourself to people who are there simply to discredit you. (J) Do you feel like it’s one of those stumbling blocks that you talk about? That He puts stumbling blocks specifically in front of us, so that we have the ‘out’, if we wanted to get ‘out’? Do you think that His scandal, and His…the way that you have to go sometimes where it’s questionable, or whatever. Do you feel like He does that to give you the stumbling block and the ‘out’, so that you can be justified in your own mind of leaving His will? (M) I think you see it more clearly than I do. And it’s true. He does deliberately evoke out of us our prejudice and our… If we want a way our, He says in Hebrews, there’ll be one provided. So you, you’re right, it’s scriptural. But I’m thinking of another situation where there was another person in my life that was very, ah, very violent, and very dark in the soul. And I had been called to this one. And there came a day when my daughter called me, and she said Mom, this person’s going to kill you. This person could murder you. Do you understand that? She said I have been on my knees for hours. In fact, we were in Russia when she called me. And she said, you have got to get this person out of your life, it’s dangerous. And I said, you’re right, you’re right, and I’m asking the Lord about it. Well, the Lord had not released me yet from this person. He eventually did, and it proved to be another scandal. (Martha laughs) (J) Hmhmm. (M) It’s probably still on going. And He’s caused me not to really care. But His will is very costly. And that’s why I said in that podcast that it will take you, ah, it will take you places that you would not go, of your choice, of your will. And my friend who wrote the comment, called it a cliff, because it is a cliff to your demise. His will, will cost you yourself. (J) Ok, so let me give you the other side of that. When you do embrace, as Mary did, the, invite of the Lord, to bring forth the Son of God through her, the response and the expression of God that comes out of that is the Magnificat. (M) Yes. You’re speaking of Mary, the Mother, yes. (J) So you can… That’s the response, that’s the bliss that you’re talking about, that if you will say yes to His extra-ordinary, strange, ah, out-of-the-realm… (M) Costly, personally. (J) You say yes to that, and then you go into that Divine bliss of the Magnificat, where, ah, wow, what an amazing thing. (M) Well, the Magnificat is an extremely intimate knowledge of God. And it is, it is a glorious, exuberant bliss. But, she describes Him in amazing ways, and Who He is, what His ways are, and what He does. I really thought you were talking about Mary of Bethany at first. And I was thinking about how just the worship of Him evokes scorn, is a scandal. It evokes scorn, mocking, condemnation. Jesus had to defend her; say, leave her alone, she’s anointing Me for My burial. But even His closest disciples felt it was out of order, it was excessive. And when she washed His feet with her tears and anointed His feet with oil, Judas said it should have been given to the poor. It’s always criticized. Everything that is God’s will, and that it issues from the love of God, is a scandal to the world. It’s not just rejected, it is mocked, scorned, and it is abhorrent to the world, to see Him either worshipped or obeyed. So the answer is, that’s it. (Martha laughs) That’s what His will costs, and that’s where He takes it. So, thank you, L.W. Bless you, I’d love to meet you someday. (Martha laughs)

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